


Don't Mess With Space Dad

by VividDayDreamer



Series: Prompts and Challenges (Supergirl 2015) [17]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Danvers Siblings includes Winn, Don't copy to another site, Fictober 2019, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Contents, Haunted Houses, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Jump Scare Tactics, Revenge, Scary Clowns, Space Dad Hank Henshaw | J'onn J'onzz, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 09:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20946320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VividDayDreamer/pseuds/VividDayDreamer
Summary: Alex and Kara come up with an event that includes forming teams, a haunted house, frightening costumes, and a contest that employs scare tactics.  Alex, Kara and Winn form "The Danvers" squad, hoping to enlist J'onn as their "ace in the hole", as he could shape-shift into anything on the fly.  However, when Space Dad refuses to play along, the three decide to "prove" that scaring can be fun.  Little did they realize that their plan would backfire on them.





	Don't Mess With Space Dad

**Author's Note:**

>   

> 
> Challenge Details: 
>   * Challenge Name: [Fictober 2019](https://fictober-event.tumblr.com)
>   * Relationship: Danvers Siblings (Alex, Winn, Kara) & Space Dad J'onn
>   * Prompt: "No, and that’s final."
> 
>   

> 
> **OH! AND A HUUUUUGE SHOUT-OUT TO [Im_still_waiting_for_the_rain_to_fall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_still_waiting_for_the_rain_to_fall/pseuds/Im_still_waiting_for_the_rain_to_fall) for doing the Beta read! You're so amazing, thank you so much for your help!** (And I'm sorry I totally forgot to add this in when I posted early this morning. I was dead tired!)
> 
> **Prompt me if you'd like to play! You can find my prompts and rules on my [Tumblr](https://dreamsescapeus.tumblr.com/).**
> 
>   


Halloween was fast approaching. It was one of the Danvers' favorite holidays. Parties, dressing up, sweets, it was all up their alley. To make it even more fun, Kara had taken it upon herself to create games and contests that they could all participate in, or would sometimes organize a group outing. This year, she thought of "Fright Fest". It was something that Kara and Alex had come up with, during one of their sister nights. 

Alex had conned Kara into watching a thriller that kept her sister on edge. Throughout points in the movie — of which Alex had seen before, but didn't mention it to her sister — she'd do some scare tactic, which inevitably caused Kara to scream and jump out of her seat. There were a few instances where popcorn had rained down upon them, as the bowl shot up to the ceiling with superpower strength. By the end of the night, Alex ended up with a few badly bruised arms, for all the times when Kara had punched her for being insensitive, but honestly, she couldn't help herself. It was all too worth it.

Kara was hating on Alex for all the times she'd been frightened, but eventually forgave her when Alex apologized and handed her a homemade dessert that Eliza insisted she take back — it was amazing how food was Kara's second Kryptonite. However, Alex occasionally mocked her for how jumpy she'd been throughout the movie, which eventually shifted to the topic of Halloween. By the end of the night, stuffed and a little tipsy from too much drinking, "Fright Fest" was born. It involved renting out a haunted house, inviting a smattering of guests that were broken up into different teams who were all dressed up as the scariest things imaginable, and took part in a contest to see who could "scare out" the competition.

Surprisingly, the two remembered "most" of the plan the next day, and pitched it to Lena, who admittedly was not convinced that it was a good idea; mostly because it didn't seem that well planned. However, after some whining, begging, batting of their eyes, accompanied by their infamous puppy dog faces, Lena gave in. She agreed to help cover the costs to rent out a local "haunted house" for their shenanigans. However, she did make Alex personally accountable if _anything_ went wrong that would incur any additional financial expenses, or would entail legal intervention if they were found responsible for any liabilities. Leave it to Lena to smack one of these two with legally binding responsibilities to face the reality of their ask. And, because of it, Alex nearly backed out. However, Kara's enthusiasm surprisingly didn't falter, and immediately agreed on behalf of Alex.

Weeks before the event, agents, friends, and families started recruiting for their teams. The final decision was to keep the total number of teams at ten. Some of the teams were formed between the usual suspects. One team consisted of Alex, Kara and their honorary little brother, Winn. A secondary team consisted of Nia, Brainy, Mon-el and Imra. Another had James, Kelly, and Lucy. Another had Sam, Ruby, Eve and Lena — who insisted she wasn't participating, but somehow her name was added to the team. The remaining teams were various groupings of DEO agents or close Catco friends. The only one who hadn't signed up, was J'onn.

  


"J'onn, come on, you _have_ to participate," Kara pleaded as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"'Have to,' is relative only to you, Kara."

"Oh, but _everyone_ is playing. Come on, pleeeease," she whined.

"Kara." J'onn looked at her with an unamused look, one that was unwilling to budge from his stance to not partake in this particular event. Kara's seen this look before. It's that "parental, dad look," that warned her not to bother him again, or there will be consequences.

  


She puffed her cheeks and furrowed her brows in disappointment. J'onn cracked a small smile, then just shook his head and walked away. However, as he walked down the hallway to his office, Alex caught up with him.

  


"Hey J'onn," she said, wearing a grin that was all too telling.

“No, and that’s final.”

"I didn't even say anything!" she said with exasperation.

  


They stopped at the front of his office, where he turned and asked, "So, then. Tell me."

  


Alex's lips folded between her teeth as she raised her eyebrows, sporting a somewhat child-like look that appeared as if she was asking for permission for something she wasn't allowed to have.

  


"Well....so I really think the Danvers squad has a chance of winning the Fright Fest, but...with Brainy being able to practically 'become' anything he imagined, I think we'll have some competition. So....I was thinking. Maybe if you joined us, you know, considering you're a shape shifter AND practically a Danvers that—"

"No."

"Oh come on, J'onn. It's going to be fun, and we can totally win this. You can easily change into the scariest thing and frighten the pants off of all the other teams!"

"Personally, I don't see the fun in 'frightening the pants off' of everyone else," he said casually as he turned into his office.

"It's fun, really. Come on, this isn't your first Halloween. You know how entertaining it can be."

"My answer is final, Alex. Now, don't you have recruits to train?"

  


Alex let out a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes, disappointed in not having any success in recruiting him.

  


  


* * *

  


Around lunch time, J'onn was out standing at the front balcony of the office, taking a breather and enjoying some fresh air before returning to stacks of paperwork and scheduled meetings.

  


"Hey, Papa Bear!" Winn said casually, smacking him on the back. "Nice day, huh?"

"Winn, no."

  


Winn raised his eyebrows and then side-eyes the cityscape before looking back at him.

  


"Um...is, bright and sunny with cool crisp air not a definition of a nice day to you?"

  


J'onn just knitted his eyebrows together, squinting at him like he's done many times before, as he placed his hands on his hips.

  


"If you're about to ask me to join the Danvers Squad, the answer is no. I gave your 'sisters' the same answer already today."

"Oh, but whyyyy?" he whined; his intonation sounding more and more like the Danvers sisters. J'onn just rolled his eyes.

He gave a very parental answer of, "Because I said so," before leaving Winn at the balcony.

"You know, that doesn't always work!" he shouted at him.

  


J'onn stopped mid-step and turned to face him with an unamused, stern look. It caused Winn to scrunch up his face and regret his words.

  


"Um...nevermind, you know, you're right. Bad idea. Forget I said anything."

  


J'onn smirked, shook his head then turned back on his way.

  


  


* * *

  


  


That evening the three were out at Al's unwinding, talking about the event, and complaining about J'onn. A few drinks later, and another idea popped into Kara's head.

  


"We just need to show J'onn how fun Halloween can be!"

"You mean, how much fun 'scaring' can be," Alex joked, more as a jab to Kara than anything.

"Exactly!"

  


Alex paused in confusion; the tip of her beer bottle sat on her lips.

  


"We can try to scare J'onn! Show him how funny it is!" she continued.

  


At this point, both Alex and Winn stared at her like she'd grown two heads.

  


"Okay, first off, Kar, you hate being scared. How does scaring J'onn make him _want_ to participate? Wouldn't _you_ hate it even more?"

"Nu uh. I mean, yea, I still hate you for making me jump and spilling all my popcorn. Twice, even," she said, kicking Alex's shin under the table and causing her to flinch. Alex retaliated by tossing some bar nuts at her. "But, after we talked and laughed about it, I have to admit, it was pretty fun. Especially when you're on the other side of it."

"See? Thank you," Alex acknowledged sarcastically.

"Okay, but, really. You wanna try to scare, J'onn? I mean...number one, I don't think you could scare the man. And two, aren't you afraid that it'll just backfire on us? I mean, come on. It's J'onn we're talking about. He practically sets the rules."

"We can figure it out, come on Winn," Kara pleaded, grabbing his arm and shaking him lightly back and forth. "You know you wanna," she added, with a bit of a mischievous gleam in her eye.

  


Winn eventually caved.

  


"Yea, guess it _would_ be kinda fun to catch him by surprise."

  


The two then gave Alex that look; the one that pretty much says, 'Come be one of us!'

  


"So, you in?" Kara said, a large goofy grin plastered on her face.

"You know we're probably going to regret this though, right?"

"Well, at the very least, we'll hopefully get a good scare out of him."

  


Alex shook her head, then raised her bottle. The other two clinked their drinks with hers.

  


  


* * *

  


  


A few days later, the three were ready to "convince" J'onn that scaring others was "fun". They each had their own idea to execute, but they all helped each other in setting up or preparing whatever it was that was necessary to pull off all their scares.

The morning started with a rainstorm, heavier than usual for this time of the year, limiting visibility and causing disruptions across the power grid. With winter just around the corner, the darkness that came with the earlier hours, made the day seem even gloomier. Despite this, J'onn was like the mailman. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, J'onn will be at his desk, promptly at five in the morning. With a routine like this, it was easy for the three to time the first "attack".

The pounding rain, the clap of thunder, and the flash of lighting, proved to be an effective cover when it temporarily blew the power out at the DEO. There was a backup generator of course, but its limited use was primarily dedicated to the more important systems, like the prisoner cells, security, medical rooms and defense mechanisms. This left unnecessary sections of headquarters lit with very dim or no light. It was the perfect opportunity.

J'onn decided to move to a common area of the DEO; a place where there would be more light for him to complete his work. The best thing he liked about these early mornings, was the peace and quiet. The staff there were limited to just the night's shift of agents, so the hustling and bustling was minimal. When he turned the corner down the darkened corridor, lit only by the eerie glow of red emergency indicator lights, J'onn felt a presence. Stopping in his tracks, he turned around, eyeing the hallways and open doors of adjacent rooms. He didn't see anyone, but knew someone was there. He tried to mentally track down the unknown visitor, but there was no luck. His brows were knitted tightly, his eyes glowed red and he squinted in the darkness, as he tried to utilize his Martian powers. His hand lingered at his side, fingertips skimming the edge of his holstered weapon.

  


"Come out!" he ordered.

  


He listened patiently but his nerves were wound tight. When there wasn't so much as a peep, he slowly turned back in the direction he was headed, though his head was still craned behind him. When he finally faced forward, he was startled, tripping over his feet when a creature, dark and flowy, with brightly lit red eyes, swooped down towards him. His eyes were nearly bulging out of his head on full alert, unsure as to what had attacked him. His weapon had fallen across the hallway. quickly accessing his situation, he risked crawling over to it, only to have the creature swoop down once more, beating him to the punch. J'onn stood then, staring at the ghastly creature that hovered in the air, focused on him. It slowly moving closer and closer, with J'onn inching back slow in attempts to maintain the distance between them. Before he could turn away, the creature came up to speed once more, causing J'onn to cross his arms across his face to brace for impact, that never came. Instead, when he opened his eyes, all he saw were those beady red eyes, inches from his face.

  


"Who are you? What are you? What do you want?"

  


The questions came and came, but no answers were given. Instead, its cloaked arms lifted up in a slow and worrisome pace. It reached for its head, and in one fell swoop, it lifted its hood and lunged forward suddenly, startling him once more with a loud, "BOO!" J'onn stepped back. His fists clenched at his sides and tension filled his body. Eventually his eyes finally recognized the being before him. No longer was there a frightful creature, instead, there was a familiar face with blue eyes, light skin and long blonde hair. His look of fright and worry, changed to that of anger and frustration.

  


"Kara! I could have shot you!"

Grinning with satisfaction, she took off the neural dampener from her head and simply responded, "Um...bulletproof. Remember?"

  


She then reached forward, handing him back his weapon, which he took with a quick jerk of his hand. After securing it back into its holster, he shoulder bumped right past Kara, without saying another word.

  


Immediately worried, Kara called out after him, "Hey! Hey J'onn, you're...you're not mad are you?"

  


All she got in return was silence.

  


  


* * *

  


  


It was hours later when J'onn had finally finished the round of paperwork that he'd been preoccupied with for most of the morning. Though, it was after taking a moment to meditate and calm his nerves from Kara's surpise attack.

When there was a break in the storm, he decided to take advantage of it and run out for a quick lunch. He returned about twenty minutes later with a styrofoam container of gyro meat and rice, courtesy of the street cart a block away from the office. As he opened his office door, he was immediately started by the slow creepy appearance of a young girl, whose face came lurking from behind. She had long, brown, tangled up hair, with blackened eye sockets, tattered skin and a sewn on grin that would make anyone's skin crawl. When she lurched forward unexpectedly, J'onn jumped, causing his lunch to accidentally slip from his hands, and scatter all over the floor.

When the girl noticed the heaping pile of wasted food, her hands reached up and pulled the mask off.

  


"Hey, J'onn!" Alex said with a smug look, proud of her accomplishment. As her eyes glanced back down at the mess she'd caused, her face morphed to bear a shameful grin. "I'm really sorry about your lunch. I'll get this cleaned up and um....wanna go get another one? My treat of course." she said sheepishly.

  


J'onn just stared at her with annoyance; his face clearly unamused.

  


"No, _you_ can go back out into the rainstorm and get me another platter. _I'm_ staying here, where it's dry."

"Um....okay, yea, sure."

  


As Alex tip-toed over the mess of meat and yellow rice on the ground, J'onn smacked her upside the head with all the force expected from an annoyed parental figure.

  


"Ow!" Alex flinched and rubbed her head, turning back at J'onn to say something else, but her words fell short at seeing his glare. "Nevermind. I'll be right back with lunch. Sorry!"

  


  


* * *

  


  


It was nearing the end of the day. The storm continued to wreck havoc on the city, with momentary black-outs and blaring police and fire rescue sirens echoing throughout, mixing in with the roar of winds and loud rumbling of thunder. Luckily, despite the chaos outside, there weren't any DEO related incidences to tend to. However, the day still felt just as long. Accumulated paperwork was draining.

J'onn took a sip of his coffee, staring at the loads of emails that he'd received and had yet to check. Skimming through, his eye caught onto an email from Colonel Haley. Deciding to start there, he opened it. As he started to read the first paragraph, detailing the need for certain policies at the DEO to be revisited, his screen immediately flashed black, then white, then red; a dark crimson red. After a split-second, it then faded to black again, when suddenly, a gory, and horrific image of a ghastly looking creature popped-up close, filling his screen with this frightening image. It was accompanied by a high-pitched eerie scream that repeated over and over again; his speakers suddenly on full blast. 

J'onn jumped back, accidentally spilling his coffee all over himself. He cursed, having been nearly startled to death for the third time that day, with this being the second time he needed to deal with an unnecessary mess. After a few seconds, the program ceased on its own, returning everything to normal. His eyes squinted at the screen, investigating the email, then realizing that the email address had been spoofed. There was only one culprit he could think of that would do this, and he sat just outside. However, rather than yelling at him, he kept quiet. He knew that Winn was more nervous when he was completely silent; it spoke volumes of how J'onn felt. In fact, it usually tortured Winn when he was ignored. He would rather have had the scolding.

At this point, J'onn was absolutely fed up with the fright tactics. But, instead of berating them for causing him unnecessary headaches throughout the day, he decided to employ another method. The "kids" needed a taste of their own medicine.

  


  


* * *

  


  


The days following, all the way up to the day of "Fright Fest", the trio hadn't dared to pull anything else. After how annoyed J'onn was — which was easily seen in the change of attitude towards them the day after — the three were concerned about not trying anything else; they didn't even bother mentioning the idea of "Fright Fest", much less, joining their team.

Little did they know what J'onn had in store.

On the day of the event, everyone was fully engaged, ready to scare the living daylights out of friends and family and "fight" to win the contest. After rounds and rounds of screams and laughter, the Danverses and Brainy's team were neck-and-neck. Right before their final scare, J'onn had entered the haunted house, and teleported from room to room, until he found his targets, huddling around themselves.

  


"Alright, so, we just gotta make sure we stay alert and be on our game, Danvers Squad. We got this."

"Alex is right, we just have to make sure we put our 'A game' on against Brainy and those guys. Good job on figuring out Brainy's weak points, Winn."

"Yea. I'm pretty sure we'll scare the bejeezus outta him, but...I'm worried that like, you know, what I did went against the bro code of giving away his secret."

"Family comes first, Winn," Alex said matter-of-factly.

"Yea, don't worry, Winn. After we win, we're totally gonna— AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! WINN! BEHIND YOU!" Kara screamed!

  


Both Alex and Winn turned around, and screamed in unison. Alex jumped back, naturally reaching for her gun, which she wasn't wearing — it was decided that carrying live weapons was probably not the best idea in a "jump scare" contest — so instead cowered backwards, her eyes fixated on the evil looking clown, her body instinctively in protective mode, which masked her racing heart and jittery nerves. Winn on the other hand, had swiftly shifted behind Alex, with his hands fisted by his ears, and his head hiding against Alex's back.

  


"I thought everyone decided "Pennywise" was banned!" Kara shouted, her eyes nearing tears as she stood shoulder-to-shoulder to her sister, shaking in fear.

"'Pennywise' _was_ banned!" Alex's tone was harsh. Fear was evidently present in the slight trembling of her voice, which came alongside the anger that someone had broken the rules, followed by concern that this wasn't a real 'someone'. Her fight or flight reaction was being put to the test.

  


The infamous clown, crept closer and closer, until it suddenly vanished.

  


"Alex...," Kara cowered as she tugged on Alex's sleeve. "Do you think he's really gone?"

  


Alex's senses went on full alert, hesitant to believe that it just vanished and left completely.

  


"I don't think that—" Alex tensed up at the feel of a large, strong hand grasping her left shoulder. It was too big to be to Kara's, and she felt Winn trembling behind her. She turned her gaze slowly, clenching her eyes momentarily, praying that it wasn't that frightful clown. But when her eyes came upon that notable pale white face, with its red nose and curly hair, she froze; it was practically breathing down her neck.

"BOO!" the clown said without even so much of an effort, before the other two's attention shiftly quickly in the direction of the voice. Winn dropped to his knees, practically hugging Alex's legs, while Kara hid closer next to Alex, trembling so much, that Alex couldn't tell if it was Kara shaking, or herself. Then, just as quickly, it vanished once more.

"Alright, I've had enough of this," Alex said, nerves steeling.

  


Her fight instincts were kicking in. If anyone was breaking the rule, she was going to—

  


"We're getting the hell out of here!"

  


Then again, maybe it was the flight instinct...

  


"Winn, get up," she ordered, bending low to grab Winn's arm. "We're going to get out of here and—" 

"I got you...," said a deep creepy, voice.

  


A string of expletives exploded out of her mouth at the sudden feel of strong arms wrapping around her. She froze for a second as she looked down at unfamiliar arms; she then glanced up at Winn and Kara, who cowered side-by-side, a few feet in front of her. It only let go once it heard a trembling shriek from Alex to unhand her.

Noticing that he'd pushed them to their limits, a scare for a scare, he stepped away. Alex immediately ran towards the other two. The three faced the clown in fear. All of a sudden, a familiar red glow transformed the creature into its normal form.

  


"J'onn!" Alex shouted. "What the hell do you think you're—"

With a smug grin, he simply spoke over Alex. "I think I win."

"J'onn!" Kara spoke out, clearly relieved but also very upset. "Clowns were forbidden for a reason!"

  


J'onn then walked over and wrapped his arms around Kara to calm her down. He then looked over to Winn and motioned him to come forward. Reluctantly, he did.

  


"I hate clowns! Not cool, papa bear!" he said, mustering up every ounce of courage he could, to save face. J'onn just threw his arm over around him and hugged him tight. After a while, he let them both go; everyone now much calmer.

"Next time, when I say no, it's final."

  



End file.
